Rain
by Kirai-chan
Summary: After the war, Temari remembers why it rains. I guess the clouds do cry...for everyone... R&R Rating for suicide and character death. Some romance, mainly ShikamaruTemari and SakuraNaruto


Just a short fic that takes place after a war with Orochimaru and Akatsuki. The pairings are Ino/Chouji, Hinata/Kiba, Neji/Tenten, Shikamaru/Temari, and Sakura/Naruto, but mostly Shikamaru/Temari with a tiny dab of Sakura/Naruto. Also some brother/sister bonding (not romance). Please review if you like it! If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Now you can't sue me! HAHA! In your face!

Why Does it Rain?

"Temari, it's time for the funeral," Sakura announced. Temari didn't answer. "Temari, please." She knocked again on the bathroom door.

(&)

The war was over. They had one the war against Orochimaru and Akatsuki. There were many deaths; uncountable. A large stone monument covered with gold name plates now stood in between the Sand and Leaf countries.

_Yamaaka Ino_

_Akimichi Chouji_

_Akimichi Chouza_

_Inuzuka Kiba_

_Inuzuka Hana_

_Rock Lee_

_Tsunade_

_Hyuga Hinata_

_Uchiha Sasuke_

_Nara Shikamaru_

_Kankuro of the Sand_

_Gaara of the Sand_

Thousands more; Temari remembered the bloody field. Silence filled the area as survivors began to search for their loved ones.

Kankuro was all the way on the other side of the field. Temari had seen him die.

'_Why?'_

Gaara lay about ten feet away from her. Temari didn't need to walk over to see that he was dead.

'_Gaara…'_

Nara Shikamaru was laying in front of her. She remembered then; he had saved her. He took the blow for her. Why?

'_I hope it was because you loved me…'_

But she couldn't cry. She wanted to cry; she had to cry. It began to rain.

"_Temari, why does it rain?" a young Gaara asked from the windowsill._

_Temari thought for a moment and then replied, "Because, Gaara, the clouds are crying."_

"_Why are they sad?"_

"_The clouds are sad when someone dies. Especially if they have just died to save someone else."_

"_If I die, will the clouds cry for me, too? Even though I am a…monster?"_

_Temari looked at him with sad eyes. "I hope that the clouds cry for you, Gaara, but if they do not, then I will cry. Because you are no monster; you are my brother!"_

_Temari smiled at her brother._

"I guess…the clouds really do cry," Temari whispered as she looked up to the clouds, soaked in blood and covered with dirt. "They cry…for everyone."

(&)

"Temari, I'm coming in!" Sakura announced, fed up with her friend's behavior. She opened the door and screamed.

(&)

Naruto held Sakura in his arms as they watched the funeral procession. Sakura brought a crumpled piece of paper out of her pocket and read it over again, tears filling her eyes.

_To my friends:_

_I'm sorry, I really am. But…I can't live without them. I've lost everything I have ever held dear to me. So I guess I just want to be with them again. There are many things I never got to say to them._

_Please ask them to bury me next to Nara Shikamaru; he sacrificed his own life for mine. I loved him; this is one of the things I wish I had told him before the battle, but I guess that now I will get to tell him, right?_

_Tell them to also bury me next to Gaara; my baby brother who fought so hard to be acknowledged and taken in as an actually person. I guess he finally got his wish, right?_

_Tell them to bury Kankuro next to Gaara; we can always be together this way, even if people who take their own lives do go to hell, right?_

_I'll miss you, too. But please don't cry; the clouds will do that for you._

_Love always,_

_Temari_

Sakura looked up at the sky, which had begun to pour down rain. "Naruto?"

"Yeah?"

"Temari's right; the clouds really do cry. But so do I," Sakura told him, smiling. Naruto looked up and smiled along with his fiancé as they walked with the procession.

As the last shovel of dirt was poured over the four graves, the sun came out and shone a rainbow clear in the sky, and it was like their friends were smiling down on them.

Everything was well.


End file.
